Judge Orders Rent Abated For Residents Of Friendship Towers

Friendship Towers residents and activists are shown outside the Atlanta high rise. They have complained for months that the air conditioning is not sufficient at the facility that is owned by Friendship Baptist Church in Atlanta. (Credit: Maria Boynton/CBS Local)

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Jerry Baxter has issued another ruling in the dispute between residents of Friendship Towers and Friendship Baptist Church, the owner of the apartment building.

In a hastily called hearing Monday afternoon, Baxter ruled that the residents would not have to pay rent for the months of August and September. In an earlier ruling, Baxter determined that residents did not have to pay rent for this month.

Friendship Towers, located on Northside Drive in Atlanta, is owned by Friendship Baptist Church. It was one of two churches paid millions of dollars by the Atlanta Falcons so that their historicchurch buildings could be torn down to make way for the new Georgia Dome. (Credit: Maria Boynton/CBS Local)

This all follows at least two months of public complaints by the residents. The black, and mostly elderly residents, contend that living conditions at the building are “unbearable”. The air conditioning unit at the high-rise on Northside Drive is broken. The management company was ordered to fix it. The company was also ordered to provide cooling units in each of the building’s 90 units. But the resident plaintiffs say it remains too warm in their apartments.

The judge also ordered that residents with medical conditions exacerbated by the heat be moved immediately.

-Maria Boynton, CBS Local

Maria Boynton Maria Boynton
was named anchor of CBS Radio Atlanta V-103’s morning news broadcasts in July of 2014.
She joined WVEE following 20 years of covering...More fromMaria Boynton